Have *Array2 classes implement an interface [Includes small breaking change]

[Kietyo]

This will allow me to add more useful extension functions in the future without have to redundantly implement it for each type.

There is a small breaking change.

I changed toString(...) method names to asString since I found refactoring it broke the JS IR compiler. I don't think this will be that big of change because the no-parameter toString() implementation is still the same as before, and that's probably what will be used the most.

Clients can simply rename toString -> asString if they're using the overloaded versions.

[soywiz]

Nice. But we should be aware of the performance regression due to boxing.

Also what's the JS bug? If we circumvent it, we should also probably report it. What's the stacktrace?

[Kietyo]

Thanks a lot for the comments, I'm learning a lot! I also saw your post a few years back:

https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/performance-question-related-to-boxing-and-interface-implementation/17387/3

I decided to go with revert the get/set changes and introduce the getAt and setAt methods that you mention.

Next I'm working on a potential workaround to avoid extra allocs for the general methods (e.g each, fill), which is to introduce an auxiliary data class that can be used to passing data around without boxing:

data class Array2Element(
    var intData: Int = 0,
    var floatData: Float = 0f,
    var doubleData: Double = 0.0,
    var any: Any? = null
)

I took a look at the generated Java code, and noticed it doesn't box:

Notice that getAt boxes, but getTo doesn't box.

I'll work more on it tomorrow.

[Kietyo]

Ok NVM the idea with using an auxiliary data didn't work. Ready for review.

[soywiz]

IArray2<Thanks>!